FIH Men's Pro League

[ssp]

Just checked the score and literally within seconds we concede!! Somethings never, ever change.
2-2 with 9 mins to go.
Time to go away. My bet is on a 3-2 or 4-2 defeat.

[arjun2761]

Looks like the match ended 2-2 but we won the shootout 3-1, so we pick up 2 points from this match compared to 1 for the Aussies. Decent show by the Indians confirming that we are solidly in the top 4 right now...

[ssp]

Yes, we picked up 2 points by winning the shoot out. Another encouraging result. I'll try and watch the replay later post my thoughts.

Going back to yesterday's defeat, I think we needed a bit more mobility in midfield to provide cover for our defenders. Sumit and Nilikanta seem to make a useful difference, maybe even Chinglensana. As we are under so much pressure when playing Australia (compared to other teams), basic skill errors go up and we look worse than usual.

[jaydeep]

Agree with ssp, we require more mobility in the midfield.
Today, a good win for us in the shoot-out against a strong Australian team ... Sreejesh was a hero of the match, though he conceded 2 penalty strokes in the shoot-out but saved 3 shots also ... We played a lot better hockey than yesterday, though we were making a lot of defensive errors ... We conceded 9 penalty corners but Aussie players failed to convert, on other hands we scored 2 goals from 4 penalty corners ... In this match, we played the pressing game and managed to keep the pressure on the Aussie team ... Again we showed mastery in the shoot-out to earn a bonus point from this match.

[sameerph]

Against top 3 teams in the world, we had 2 regular wins, 2 wins in penalty shootouts and 2 narrow losses in 6 matches now.

We are clearly playing close to the level if these top 3 teams as of now at least at home.

Less see if we can do it abroad and on a more consistent basis over next few months. Then, we can upgrade this team as a medal prospect for Tokyo.

[Sin Hombre]

How much is playing at home worth in field hockey?

[sameerph]

May not be much. But, all these 6 matches have been played on same turf in Bhubaneswar. So,just want to see them perform as well in other places before moving this team to at least second level in our Tokyo projections. I saw our last projection in September and it put hockey team as "Rational mind knows they are no-hopers but we will still hope". They are now certainly better than that.

[ssp]

More important than home advantage is the umpiring

The second match was a better show from us, but I feel we were lucky with a couple of the video referrals and penalty stroke miss (although, I don't think it was a PS at all!). Australia still seemed to cut through our midfield and defence too easily. Our marking at the back was sloppy at times and the first goal conceded was due to poor goalkeeping. We still make too many errors in passing and trapping.

At the Olympics, if we perform as per our ranking, we should make the QF (although we could still screw up in the pool against NZ & Spain), where we will face Belgium, Holland, Germany or GB. We are playing away to the last 2 of these teams in the next few months, so that will give us a good indicator of our chances of making the semi finals. So far, we have exceeded my expectations in this Pro league season.

Here's a nice report on the 2 matches:http://fieldhockey.com/index.php/commen ... -shoot-out

Just as I felt, the midfield was too weak on Friday and ball watching at the back will be punished by the top teams.

[sameerph]

It seems like your favorite Mandeep was not in the team against Australia, SSP.

Was he not selected or injured ?

[ssp]

Mandeep's picked up an ankle injury.
His replacement, Gursahibjit seems to be equally weak. Our forwards looked poor in comparison to the Aussie ones.

I don't think I the selectors will look beyond the current 5-6. Shame as Sumit Kumar, Arman Qureshi and Affan Youssef should have been tried in the Pro League at least. Hope Shilanand Lakra gets a few chances in the away fixtures.

At the back, we need a bit more pace and better discipline. We can't afford to play both Birendra and Rupinder. I think the latter will go to Tokyo as our best PC flicker.

[ssp]

We managed to equalize in the 60 min to take the first Pro League match into a shoot out. Argentina had a goal disallowed in the 58th min! Good to see us save a game for a change.
And we get the bonus point by fighting back in the shoot out.

[arjun2761]

Good win (on penalties) for India. We are now 4th in the Pro league on a ppg basis. If we get 2 or 3 points in the next match with Argentina we will move to sole 3rd or tied-3rd (with Australia) with Belgium and Germany currently a clear 1-2.

[jaydeep]

Yes, we made an excellent comeback from 1-2 down and scored an equalizer when few seconds remaining on the clock, 2-2 ... In the shoot-out also we were 0-2 down before winning it 3-2 to grab a bonus point.

Here is short report,
FIH PROLEAGUE: INDIA GRAB BONUS POINT AGAINST ARGENTINA AFTER HARMANPREET’S LAST-GASP EQUALIZER

[sameerph]

Just saw the recording of the match and Argenita seemed slightly the better team in open play. I think our midfield was good but co-ordination between mid field and forward seemed missing. Good that we got the last minute equaliser. Super run by Manpreet to get us that PC which Harman preet duly converted. I will take such results as many times in the past we have dominated the possession but lost the matches.

Hope to see better performance today.

[PKBasu]

The 4-quarter format has made us competitive with the best sides in the world. I think we can legitimately say we are among the top-5 teams in the world now -- alongside Australia, Germany, Belgium, Argentina -- with the Netherlands just behind. This wasn't the case for most of the time between 1982 and 2018 (with the slight exception of a brief dawn in 2003 that was nipped in the bud by IHF).